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THANKSai'^^f^ ■ SERMON,! 



F[RST ( 



■^ONN., 



Fovornber 23, lo58. 



.) ON A Til AN iVit AC 1^:, D. >.. 



N E \V H /v \^ !■: N : 
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a Ccaf of Milfori Cjistorji. 



THANKSGIVB'G SEEMON, 



PKEACHED IN THE 



FIRST CHURCH, MILFORD, CONN., 



November 25, 1858. 



'O 



JONATHAN BRACE, D.D. 

PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 




NEW HAVEN: 

PRINTED BY E. HAYES, 50 CHAPEL ST. 

1858. 



F 



SERMON. 



Psalm cxliii : 5. — / remember the days of old. 

The Poet — Young, tells us "'Tis greatly wise to talk 
with our past hours ; " and David thought that it was well 
to call to mind former days. "I remember," he says, 
" the days of old." 

The future is mostly concealed from us. We cannot 
lift the curtain which hides it from our sight. Not so with 
the past. To that we can go back, and find in the review 
entertainment and profit. 

The advantages of the study of history are many and 
various. It invigorates and enriches the mind ; it improves 
the memory ; it gratifies a natural and worthy desire to 
be acquainted with remote transactions ; it enables us to 
avail ourselves of the experience of our predecessors ; it 
informs and regulates our judgment ; and it " is profitable 
for reproof, for correction," and for strengthening the sen- 
timents of virtue. Indeed, a knowledge of history is not 
only indispensable to the man of letters, but should be 
sought by every person who would not be often con- 
founded, and mortified because of his ignorance. 



4 

More than half of that Book of Books — the Holy 
Bible, consists of history, and a familiarity with it is 
necessary to enable us fully to understand another con- 
siderable portion of this precious volume which is denom- 
inated prophetic. 

The earliest records of humanity are found in the 
sacred Scriptures, and for this reason, if for no other, 
they have the first claim on our diligent study. Next to 
this inspired history, our own town, commonwealth, and 
country should receive our notice : for important as is an 
acquaintance with Persian, Grecian, Roman, and Euro- 
pean history, a thorough knowledge of American history 
is to us more valuable. 

Six years ago, on an occasion like the present, I gave a 
brief account — which was subsequently printed by your 
request, of the First Church in Milford. It was appro- 
priate to commence here, for this Church was coeval 
with the New Haven colony, and may properly be re- 
garded as the parent of the civil state. I now propose to 
group together concerning it, and the Town we inhabit, 
such other particulars not then mentioned, as can be 
brought within the limits of a single discourse, and which 
may be considered most deserving of our remembrance. 

Standing, after the lapse of nearly two hundred and 
twenty years, on the spot selected by the first setUers as 
their abode, what a contrast between the condition of 
things here then, and this condition now! The same 
stream indeed is here, pursuing its shining way to Long 
Island Sound, which rolled then ; and the Sound, now, as 



then, mirrors the heavens in its placid bosom, or breaks its 
foam-capped waves upon the beach ; — but all else how 
changed ! The dark tangled forests have gone ; the wild 
beasts which prowled there for prey are gone likewise ; 
the Indians with their canoes, wigwams, council-fires and 
terrific war-whoop have also disappeared ; and in their 
place we have fertile fields, smiling gardens, tasteful com- 
modious dwellings, a civilized community, and temples of 
the living God. Could the primitive inhabitants of our 
village, " burst their cerements," come out of their sepul- 
chres, and look upon us to day, they would think that v/e 
lived on another planet from that on which they once resi- 
ded ; and would be quite sure of the fact, when learning 
that along the electric wire which stretches through the 
village, messages are flashed with the rapidity of thought ; 
or when they saw the iron horse advancing, breathing 
from his nostrils, smoke and flame, and heard the long 
panting trains of cars thundering on with their living 
freight ! But the locality is the same. Time, culture, 
and science, alone, have wrought the transformation. 

Th§ earliest settlements in Connecticut were formed by 
people from Massachusetts. These settlements vrere 
Windsor,* Hartford and Wethersfield. After the lapse of 
two or three years from the time these settlements were 
made, the sea-coast from Saybrook to Fairfield became 



* The most ancient Orthodox Congregational Church in New England, is in 
Windsor of this State. It was formed in the beginning of 1630, in Plymouth, 
England. The members came to Dorchester, Mass. ; and in 1036, a majority of 
them began tlie settlement of Windsor. 



6 

known, and a plantation as it was called, was commenced 
at Milford. This was in 1639. For the value received 
from the possession of " six coats, ten blankets, one kettle, 
twelve hatchets, twelve hoes, two dozen knives, and a 
dozen small glasses," a tract of land was obtained of the 
Indians, who confirmed the bargain with much parade. 
Subsequently, this original tract w^as enlarged by other 
purchases, until the hmits reached north even as far as to 
what is now Waterbury. The territory has since been 
ceded, section after section, to aid in forming the towns of 
Waterbury, Derby, Woodbridge, and Orange, until it is 
reduced to its present dimensions, — the figure of which is 
triangular. The name given to the place by the Indians, 
was Wepavvaug ; and a majority of the planters were 
from the English counties of York and Essex. We do 
gross injustice to these worthies if we say that they 
crossed the wild Atlantic, and came to these inhospitable 
shores, tenanted only by the savage and his game, merely 
to better their temporal fortunes. 

A few months after the arrival of Winthrop's company 
at Plymouth, Governor Dudley wrote home to the Countess 
of Lincoln. In that letter he says: "If any godly men, 
out of religious ends, will come over to help us in the 
good work we are about, I think they cannot dispose 
of themselves nor of their estates more to God's glory, 
and the furtherance of their own reckoning. For others, 
I conceive they are not yet fitted for this business." Our 
Fathers were of this sterling Christian stamp. They 
were "godly men." A higher motive than sordid gain 



moved them to emigrate ; a nobler object had their 
ambition. They left the land of their birth for conscience 
sake, and for the sake of Christ, — that they might have 
" freedom to worship God," according to their ideas of 
what was scriptural, and most edifying, and to extend the 
boundaries of the redeemer's kingdom. They brought 
with them the blessed Bible, a cordial attachment to 
it, and to the Sabbath, and Christian ordinances, a firm 
regard for law and order, and a love for virtue ; and their 
first Pastor, — the Rev. Peter Prudden, was a native of 
Edgerton, Yorkshire. He, and they, looked to God, for 
wisdom to project, vigor to execute, and fortitude to en- 
dure ; sought His favor as the only source of well-being 
and well-doing, acknowledged their success or failure in 
things ecclesiastical and civil to be suspended on His will 
alone ; did what they did, according to the pattern re- 
vealed to them by intimate communion with Him in 
prayer, and through the medium of His word, and had 
faith in His gracious powerful Providence ; for upon their 
banner was inscribed that sentence indicative of Puritan 
trust and piety, "He who transplants us, sustains us." 

The First Church in Milford was organized before the 
settlement of the town, for it was organized in New 
Haven; and "the seven pillars" upon which humanly 
speaking it rested, they standing upon the only sure foun- 
tion, " the Rock Christ Jesus," were the individuals who 
specially delegated for that purpose, followed the devious 
Indian foot-path through the wilderness, arrived hither, 
established themselves in this locality, and fashioned in 



8 

connection with kindred minds their civil polity. The 
Church, therefore, underlay the government of the town 
— the civil system, framed it by its counsels, sustained it 
by its influence, and infused into it some portion of its 
devotional spirit. 

In those times it was deemed expedient for a religious 
society to have a Teacher, as well as a Pastor. With the 
Rev. Mr. Prudden therefore, was associated in this ca- 
pacity, by election, Rev. John Sherman. As compara- 
tively little notice has been taken of him in the " Church 
Manual," it is fit, in passing, to bestow upon him a few 
paragraphs. 

The prescribed curriculum of study at Cambridge Uni- 
versity, England, he regularly pursued, and would have 
received the degree of A.B. in course, but for conscien- 
tious scruples relative to acceding to the terms of gradua- 
tion. He formed one of a band of emigrants who reached 
America in 1634, and settled in Watertown, Mass. Com- 
ing from thence with others to Milford, he was called to 
be Teacher of the church here. This call he declined ; 
and after remaining for a season in this vicinity, preaching 
as opportunity offered, "going about doing good," and 
serving the public as a member of the General Court for 
the jurisdiction, he returned to Watertown, and declining 
an invitation from a church in Boston, and two churches 
in London, became pastor of the church in the place 
where he had preached his first sermon. As a speaker 
his elocution was remarkably fine, and he had m^ny of 
the graces of oratory. He was also fond of mathematics, 



and astronomy, and was a rare proficient in these branches 
of science. He supplied the astronomical calculations for 
the first Christian Almanac published in this country. His 
second wife was grand-daughter of the earl of Rivers: 
Governor Hopkins was her appointed guardian ; and she 
resided under the roof of Governor Eaton. 

The Psalmist says, "As arrows are in the hand of a 
mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the 
man that hath his quiver full of them ; they shall not be 
ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the 
gate." If this is true, no ordinary measure of enjoyment 
must have been the portion of Mr. Sherman. Of such 
arrows his quiver was full ; so much so that if on a day 
like the present, when the lovely spectacle is exhibited 
of twenty-two entire States, at the call of their Chief 
Magistrates assembhng in the house of God ; — a day 
when far scattered birds wing again their way to the 
cherished nests of childhood — when sons and daughters 
return from their dispersions to the dear old homestead, 
happy in the society of each other, and in that of their 
venerated parents, Ms children were all living, and came 
back to receive the greetings of a father's and mother's 
love in Watertown, the number of "olive-plants round 
about the table " there, would have been twenttj-six. 

Of course his descendants are numerous. Not a few 
of those persons in the land, who bear the name of Sher- 
man, are of the same lineage with him. Such was the 
case with the noted Roger Sherman, once apprenticed to 
a shoemaker, who came to this town carrying his tools on 



10 

his back ; and was a member of the first Congress in 
1774; continued a member nineteen years; signed the 
Declaration of Independence in 1776; — was designated 
by Jefferson, as " a man who never said a foolish thing 
in his life," and when John Randolph of Virginia in whose 
veins was Indian blood, cried out, in his shrill piping voice 
for the purpose of insulting him, that he " should like to 
know what the gentleman from Connecticut, when he 
left the cobbler's bench for that Hall, did with his leather 
apron ; " — received for answer : — " Sir, I cut it up to make 
moccasins for the descendants of Pocahontas !" 

Before the death of Rev. John Sherman which occurred 
in 1685, — he being then in the seventy-second year of his 
age, there was a man in the commonwealth prominent 
for his victories over the savage tribes in Springfield, and 
Hadley, Mass., distinguished for turning the tide of suc- 
cess at a critical moment in that Battle of "Bloody 
Brook," when the " Flower of Essex bit the dust," as also 
for his intellectual gifts, weight of influence, and official 
position. It was Governor Robert Treat. When 
Sir Edmond Andross, knight, and captain-general, and 
Governor-general over New England, came, supported by 
his suite, and more than sixty of the King's troops, to 
Hartford, during the session of the Assembly, and de- 
manded the charter granted by Charles the Second to the 
Connecticut colony; — the man who valiantly and ably 
advocated the resolution not to give up the patent, and 
privileges obtained at so much cost, and of such value ; 
and the man who was privy to extinguishing the lights, 



11 

the carrying off of that royal mstrument of liberty and 
secreting it in the large hollow oak, was this Governor 
Robert Treat ; — a member of the Milford Church, 
and who married a daughter of one of the " seven pillars," 
on which this church laid its foundation work, and was 
one of the three appointed by the church to impose 
hands on the second pastor of this church — Rev. Roger 
Newton, on the occasion of his installation, August 22, 
1660. 

A word or two in this connection, additional to what 
has been printed, in relation to the fifth pastor of the 
church. Rev. Samuel Wales, D.D. 

He graduated in 1667, in the class with Gov. John 
Treadwell, and the not less celebrated Dr. Nathaniel 
Emmons. He was elected to the Professorship of Divin- 
ity in Yale College in 1781. The honorary degree of 
Doctor of Divinity he received from two colleges ; — from 
Yale College, his Alma Mater in 1782, after he was ap- 
pointed Professor, and from the College of New Jersey in 
1784. His figure was short and stout, his voice was 
heavy, and flexible, was under good management, and his 
sermons glowed with divine truth earnestly expressed. 
After being engaged several years in the duties of his pro- 
fessorship, this star of superior brightness and influence in 
the orb of the Church, was mysteriously wrapped in 
clouds. He was deprived of his reason, and the College 
of his valuable services. He died at the age of forty-six, 
leaving behind him the character of a man of superior 
talents, an accomplished scholar, and an eminent divine. 



IS 

The discourse at his funeral was by President Stiles. 
The text was 1 Samuel 25 : 1. "And Samuel died: and 
all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented 
him, and buried him in his house at Ramah." This text 
was announced in the original Hebrew, and the discourse 
was in Latin. 

Dr. Wales has a son living, who was a classmate of my 
father ; and has been senator of the United States from 
Delaware. 

Among the things by which this church has been char- 
acterized, are a disposition to be at peace among them- 
selves, and to treat with due consideration and respect 
their Pastors. This declaration is confirmed by the fact 
that since the organization of the Church in 1639, it has 
had but nine Pastors. This makes the average term of 
service of each Pastor but a little less than a quarter of 
century ; — which manifestly could not have been the case, 
had they been a quarrelsome people. None of these 
Pastors were driven away. Five were "not allowed to 
continue by reason of death," and their ashes sleep by the 
side of the flock they tended, in sure expectation with 
them of a joyful resurrection. Of the remaining four, one 
left on account of his health ; two were called away to 
what they deemed more important fields of service, and 
the other having occupied the pulpit during the lapse of 
thirteen years, mingles his congratulations with his people 
on this day of Thanksgiving and Praise. May they con- 
tinue to heed the counsel sent to them from the dying lips 
of one of these men of God : — " Brethren, live in peace, 



13 

and the God of love and of peace shall be with you :" 
for it is not only "good for Christians to dwell together in 
unity," but likewise "pleasant." "Behold how good 
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together 
in unity ! It is like the precious ointment upon the 
head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard; 
that went down to the skirts of his garments. As the 
dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon 
the mountains of Zion : for there the Lord commanded 
the blessing, even life for evermore." 

Leaving now the Church, for the Town, some further 
items may be noted. 

The first settlers seem to have duly appreciated the 
value of Education. In importance they placed it next to 
the Christian religion. With growth in grace, they asso- 
ciated growth in knowledge. Hence, near the "Meeting- 
house "* was erected the school-house, and while liberal 
provision was made for the preaching of the gospel, ample 
provision was likewise made for the instruction of the 
young. Not only were there primary schools, but as early 
as 1655, sixteen years after the settlement of the town, 
was there established in "the wilderness and solitary 
place," a Latin school. Records show that the inhabitants 



* The model of the worship of the Christian Church was obtained from the 
Jewish Synagogue. The ancient Puritanical word "Meeting-house" is a nearly 
literal translation of the word Synagogue into Saxon English. And Primitive Con- 
gregationalists preferred the word " Meeting-House " to the word " Church," not, as 
is said, because of their excessive antipathy to Episcopacy, but because by King 
James' translators the word Church was used to denote the assembly of Cluistian 
people, whether general or particular. 



14 

spared no pains to discipline and furnish the minds of their 
children, by engaging teachers of scientific acquirements, 
and generously remunerating them for their labors. Yale 
College is as much indebted to Rev. Samuel Andrew of 
this town, as to any other person, excepting the individual 
after whom it was named — Elihu Yale, Esq., of New 
Haven. Mr. Andrew was one of the first projectors of the 
College, — was the most influential of the ten who obtained 
a charter for the same from the Legislature, — was one of 
the original trustees of the Institution, — continued to hold 
this trust thirty-eight years, — had for a number of years 
the tuition of the senior class who resided in the town, 
and was for a time the College Rector. If, as a commu- 
nity, we are now behind some portions of the state in our 
zeal for learning, if our views on this subject are not as 
enlarged, and our efforts as well directed and earnest as 
they ought to be, it is not because of the example of our 
fathers, but because we have another spirit from that which 
they manifested. 

The first colonists of Milford, also, were not deficient as 
friends of popular rights and as patriots. The Protectorate 
of Oliver Cromwell in England was succeeded by the res- 
toration of monarchy, and Charles II. was placed upon the 
throne. Soon after he was seated there, several of the 
Judges by whose sentence the head of his father, Charles 
I, had been brought to the block, were condemned and 
executed. Three others, Whalley, Goffe and Dixwell, 
usually denominated the regicides, came to New England. 
On their arrival at Boston they were welcomed, and at 



15 

Cambridge, a neighboring town, they hved for several 
moAths unmolested and respected. It however becoming 
apparent, through intelligence from Parliament, that longer 
continuance there would be unsafe, they came to New 
Haven. Here they were sheltered in the house of Rev. 
Mr. Davenport ; and when the agents of the king came to 
apprehend them, the people were moved to stand by them 
through the influence of a discourse publicly preached by 
Mr. Davenport from Isaiah 16: 3, 4. "Take counsel, 
execute judgment, make thy shadow as the night in the 
midst of the noon-day ; hide the outcasts, bewray not him 
that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab ; 
be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler." A 
covert was found for them. It was a cave on the top of 
West Rock, and food was furnished them by a Mr. Robert 
Sperry who lived in the vicinity. From these rude quar- 
ters they subsequently repaired to another refuge called 
" The Lodge." As, however, the king's agents were on 
the hunt for them, and as the penalty of the law for har- 
boring traitors was fearful, the question arose where next 
they could go, with the prospect of finding security. The 
views and feelings of the people of Miiford were well 
understood. It was well known that they had no sym- 
pathy with the despotic policy of Charles I, or respect for 
his bigoted, tyrannical adviser Laud, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury ; that they had a fellow feeling for those who, sufferers 
from the cruel edicts of the Star Chamber and High Com- 
mission Court, had risen upon and subdued their oppres- 
sors ; and that for the men who had the integrity and the 



16 

courage to affix their signatures to the death-warrant of a 
king found guilty of treason against his nation, they had a 
high regard, — would make for their concealment "a shadow 
as the night in the midst of the noonday," and would not 
deliver them to their pursuers. Hence, on the 20th of 
August, 1661, Whalley and Goffe fled to Milford. And 
not in vain. They found friends here, and no informants 
against them, and continued here in the centre of the 
town for several years. The locality of their concealment 
is still pointed out as a spot of interest, though the building 
in which they were hidden, long since yielded to the rav- 
ages of time. It was thirty or forty rods from the place 
where we are now assembled, and the individual who 
owned the building and hid the Judges was Michael Tom- 
kins. President Stiles says: "I have frequently been in 
this house of Tomkins. It was standing since 1750, and 
perhaps to 1770. It was a building, say twenty feet square, 
and two stories ; the lower room built with stone wall and 
considered as a store ; the room over it with timber and 
wood, and used by Tomkins' family as a work or spinning 
room." He adds : " The family used to spin in the room 
above, ignorant of the Judges being below. Judge Buck- 
ingham tells me this story : ' While they sojourned at Mil- 
ford, there came over from England a ludicrous cavalier 
ballad, satirizing Charles' Judges, and Goffe and Whalley 
among the rest. A spinstress at Milford had learned to 
sing it, and used sometimes to sing it in the chamber over 
the Judges ; and the Judges used to get Tomkins to set 
the girls to singing the song for their diversion, being 



17 

humored and pleased with it, though at their own expense, 
as they were the subjects of the ridicule. The girls knew 
nothing of the matter, being ignorant of the innocent 
device, and little thought that they were serenading 
angels.' " 

Although girls, and boys, and gossips might not have 
been aware that the Judges were here, the fact was known 
to Gov. Treat and to Rev. Roger Newton, and to all to 
whom, well acquainted with their men, they chose to re- 
veal the secret. In a grove back of the house the Judges 
would often walk when the shades of night prevailed, talk 
with their guardians of Dunbar and Cromwell, learn the 
drift of the latest dispatches from Parliament, and the latest 
intelligence from the profligate court of Charles II ; and 
this silence with reference to them, and support and pro- 
tection of them, are creditable to all concerned, evincing as 
it does their fidelity, and resolution, and warm attachment 
to the sacred principles of liberty. 

In the great revolutionary struggle for Independence, 
this town furnished her " full quota of men and money." 
Two companies were raised here, under the command of 
Captains Pond and Peck who were in several engagements, 
and whose officers were commended by Washington for 
their promptness, and intrepidity ; tories were scarce, and 
were obliged to keep concealed, or meet the humiliating 
fate of McFingal, — a vote was passed Dec. 14, 1778, that 
" no person or persons, whatever, who have heretofore vol- 
untarily gone over to join with, and screened themselves 
under the protection of the enemies of the United States 



18 

of America, or who shall hereafter go over, join with, or 
screen themselves under said enemy, shall be suffered or 
allowed to reside or dwell in this town, on any pretense 
whatever;" and when on the 1st of January, 1777, two 
hundred American soldiers in a needy, diseased, and per- 
ishing condition were cast here from a British cartel ship, 
they were hospitably received, their wants supplied, and, 
above forty-six of them, whom physicians and kind nursing 
could not save, but who died, and were laid in one com- 
mon tomb, " ashes to ashes, dust to dust," there now rises 
a monument reared in part by the liberality of the people 
of the town, bearing the names of the unfortunate soldiers, 
and honorable mention of their heroic sacrifices for free- 
dom and their country. 

The first Mill erected in New Haven colony was in this 
town ; and what is remarkable, it is still the property of 
an individual of the same name with the original builder; 
and never since its erection has it been owned by a person 
of any other name. 

Though a majority of the inhabitants of the town, since 
the settlement thereof, have been farmers, and though at 
present while we have factories of various kinds, there is 
here no foreign trade, or ship-building, there was a period 
when these industrial pursuits received a good share of 
attention. From a wharf near to the mill above men- 
tioned, cattle were shipped to the West Indies ; — an active 
commerce was carried on with them, and other distant 
points ; — a sloop regularly plied between here and Boston ; 
New Haven people depended upon Milford for some of 



19 

their groceries ; sloops, schooners, and even brigs of one 
hundred and fifty tons burden, (the exact tonnage of the 
Mayflower) were launched from our dock-yards ; and no 
small portion of commercial enterprise and wealth here 
flourished. 

From Milford, moreover, have gone out many, who 
have contributed to the settlement of other towns. It is 
a prolific hive from whence sw^arm after swarm have de- 
parted. Besides Newtown, Greenwich, New Milford, 
and Durham of this State, who are largely indebted to us 
in this particular; Williamstown, Mass., Newark,* and 
Woodbridge, New Jersey ; and Talmadge, Ohio, can 
trace their beginnings to our colonists, of whom they have 
no occasion to be ashamed, and are not ashamed, and 
who thus " laid the foundations of many generations" — 
the foundations of their strength and glory. 

But it is time that I close this Leaf of Milford History ; 
particularly as I have read from it so much which before 
may have been known to some of you. A few reflections 
then, from a review of the same, and I have done. 

The subject has carried us back to former generations. 
In remembering as we have, "the days of old," "the 
years of ancient times," we have remembered the de- 
parted. Once they were here, walked these streets, 
dwelt here, toiled here, had the interests of the church 
and the town in their charge, had their afflictions and 
their blessings, their joys, and their sorrows. They then 

* Originally called Milford. 



20 

knew nothing about us, — for we were not in existence, 
and what we know of them, we learn from records less 
perishable than they were. The same azure that now 
bends over us, swelled over them. The same sun that 
lights us to day, gladdened them with its beams. The 
same moon that now rides in the sky, cast upon them her 
silver rays. The same stars that sparkle over our houses, 
sparkled over their log cabins. And the acres they sub- 
dued, some of the trees they planted, and the springs 
from which they slaked their thirst, still remain. Their 
days of Thanksgiving too, and their days of Fasting have 
descended to us. Bat they themselves have passed 
away. Their bodies sleep in yonder ancient grave yard, 
which is thick sown with the precious seed of the 
resurrection, and the moss has gathered on their head 
stones ! 

We remember those who though they have disappeared 
from human view, and "rest from their labors," are yet 
resident elsewhere. Though they have gone from earth, 
and " the places which once knew them, know them no 
more," they are not annihilated, nor in a state of dreamy 
unconsciousness, but are sentient and active in some part 
of the universe of God. 

We remember those who while they lived here, were 
probationers for eternity, and now have assigned them a 
place and state, and possess a character, the exact result- 
ant of their views, feelings, and conduct then. The char- 
acter imprinted in time, is stereotyped in eternity. If they 
were righteous then, they are righteous now, — if then 



21 

they embraced and served Christ, they are now "with 
Him where He is, beholding His glory ; " and if any un- 
justifiably and foolishly rejected Him, and otherwise 
abused their probation, they now suffer the consequences 
of such abuse. 

One of the most memorable paintings by eminent 
artists is — that of "The Head of Medusa held up by 
Perseus." The head is represented as changing into 
stone every individual who beholds it. A warrior stands 
looking at it, and he with the javelin in his hand are petri- 
fied. An assassin is there with a dagger half hidden 
under his garment, and he too with his weapon are frozen 
into stone. Another and another person are portrayed as 
looking, and each one — ^just as he is when he catches 
sight of the head, is stiffened into stone. 

There is a moral in this famous picture. That head 
stands for Death. As we are when we meet death, so as 
moral creatures shall we always be. Death, though it 
lodges the body in the grave and makes it the food of 
worms, works no essential change in the soul, any more 
than the opening of the door of a cage where a bird is 
confined, alters the nature or the color of the bird. The 
bird is the same bird while upon the wing as while a pris- 
oner, and the soul is the same soul dismissed from its 
tabernacle, as when restrained in it. Death stamps upon 
us an unchangeable, ineffaceable impress. As it finds us, 
so will the judgment find us, and the ever-during cycles 
of eternity. 



22 

We remember those whose influence lives after them, 
and by whose sayings and doings we are now affected. 
The influence of brave and enterprising minds does not 
expire with the physical forms in which they acted. In 
some cases the agencies which they set in motion are more 
potent after these forms have crumbled into dust, than when 
they were animated with life. The spirit of Napoleon 
the Great still rules France. The Order of Loyola is yet 
vigorous from the energy which he infused into it. The 
persistent sympath}^, and fervent eloquence of Wilberforce, 
still prompt to manly battling with individual and national 
wrong; and the name of many a controlling pioneer and 
leader is an incentive and spur to gallant actions. Indeed, 
"Thou canst not live for thyself alone," is written upon 
every human being. All persons have an influence, and 
this influence dies not with them. It moves on over the 
grave, and reaches posterity. A very different community 
should we have been from what we now are, if the first 
colonists, and their successors, had been addicted to idle- 
ness, vulgarity, and intemperance; or had not prized the 
Bible, scrupulously observed the Sabbath, been devout 
worshippers of God in His temple, maintained family 
prayer, and furthered the interests of education. Our 
churches, our schools, our civil and social condition, our 
respect for law and order, our opposition to infidelity, 
profaneness, sabbath breaking, and rowdyism, are the 
fruit of their sound principles and virtues ; and shame to 
the individual who amidst the memorials of his worthy 



23 

sires, and blest with the results of their excellences, is 
not a friend to industry, sobriety, purity, liberty, and 
godliness. 

Finally, we are reminded that ere the sun runs through 
many circles of the heavenly signs, we shall be numbered 
among the departed, and " though dead be yet speaking," 
and immortal be living el&ewhere, and reaping the conse- 
quences of our present right, or wrong doing. 

Let us remember this, and think, feel and deport our- 
selves accordingly. If that glow of patriotic ardor is in 
our breasts which should be there, and which impelled 
the poet to wish, 

" That he for poor aukl Scotland' sj sake, 
Some usefu' plan or book could make, 
Or sing a song at least ; " 

we shall be constrained while we enjoy, to guard also the 
heritage of blessings which have come into our possession, 
and to transmit them in their fullness and richness to those 
who shall come after us. And if we cherish as we should, 
the conviction that our everlasting future takes its unaltera- 
ble complexion from the brief present, we shall endeavor 
" so to pass through things temporal, that we may not fail 
of things eternal." 

What we honor in our Fathers, that let us imitate ; and 
those laudable courses of action which they pursued, and 
which have brought so much good to us, let us ourselves 
adopt, for the benefit of succeeding generations. Copying 
after the Old Puritans, we shall not make any very serious 



24 

mistakes in sentiment, or go far astray in conduct, and 
shall build up robust, magnanimous, heroic. Christian char- 
acters. May their faith be followed, their principles, and 
institutions be cherished, and their self-denying spirit and 
virtues be manifested by us, our descendants, and the sons 
of New England, 

" Till the waves of the bay where the Mayflower lay, 
Shall foam and freeze no more." 



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